On the Tata Bolt Hatchback

This is a discussion on On the Tata Bolt Hatchback within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; Originally Posted by Aditya
A dedicated website for the Tata Zest is now up and running. It gives us a ...

Thanks for sharing the links Aditya, but the Tata Zest official website is not a recent phenomenon. It has been there up & running since 4th Feb 2014, the day when the Zest & Bolt were officially unveiled to the world, just before the curtains were raised on the Auto Expo.

On seeing your message, I thought there would be something new/more to the website, but all the webpages currently available in the site were right there from the begining, I didn't observe anything new .

Guys any idea, what would be the launch price of the Zest. Knowing that the DeZire & the Amaze are the primary competitors, is it safe to assume that the Zest would be priced at par with the competition or TML would dare to charge a premium given the features like projector headlamps, LED tail lights, plethora of gadgetry, upmarket interiors etc. What is your take on the top-end model of the Zest?

Excise duty on small cars, motorcycles, scooters reduced from 12 to 8 per cent till 30.06.2014.

Cut excise duty on mid segment cars to 20% from 24%

Lets assume the price of the Zest is 7 lacs (prior to applying the excise duty). Now with a stubby boot, it will fall under the small car bracket, hence 8% excise duty = 56K. Hence the ex-showroom price would be 7.56 lacs.

Now assume the Zest comes with a Manza sized boot, which will make it greater than 4 metres in length, hence will fall in the mid segment cars bracket, hence 20% excise duty = 1.4 lacs. Hence the ex-showroom price would be 8.4 lacs, which is 86K higher than the sub-4 metre version.

If you consider the registration tax, insurance etc, it will easily add another 20K to the on-road price.

Thus adding few litres capacity to the boot of the Zest, will make it fall in the mid-segment bracket, shooting up its on-road price by 106K. Who in India would pay 1.06 lacs extra to just get a few litres more in the boot. Hence for TML & most of its potential customers it makes no economic sense to give a bigger boot, as no one would be ready to shell out a premium for a Zest with a bigger boot.

To be very frank, the Zest website is so confusing and is hardly connecting with the browsing minds. I found it taking me to places which I did intend to go to. There is too much gestures and controls roaming around the page. But I really wish, now that Tata has pulled this rabbit(albeit not revolutionary) out of the hat they stay cheering the auto world.

TATA motors could have easily come up with a coupe styling for availing this sub 4 metre benefits. IMHO all these cs versions brought out by all manufacturers including the new dezire look rather quirky if not ugly! They could have come up one stunning design with a swooping side profile instead of that stubby boot...what do you say guys?

TATA motors could have easily come up with a coupe styling for availing this sub 4 metre benefits. IMHO all these cs versions brought out by all manufacturers including the new dezire look rather quirky if not ugly! They could have come up one stunning design with a swooping side profile instead of that stubby boot...what do you say guys?

IMHO, coupe'ish design looks good on long wheelbase cars with sleek and clean side profile such as a Linea or a Cruze. Because a coupe'ish design means a compromise on rear headroom. I believe a long wheelbase with low ground clearance does overcome that drawback of coupe'ish design. Further, none of the hatchbacks on which these CS cars are based have clean side proflie. If one tries to fit a nice looking coupe curve on roofs of CS cars, it will have to be more like a semi circular curve. Or else one will have to compromise on rear headroom and ground clearance. And, if you ask me, boot which is so short in length does look stubby in all CS cars. I am not a designer by profession, but this is how I visualize the situation.

Not sure which one is true. Anyways there is just a difference of one month between the two news. July is not that far away, just 3 months to go. Heard that all the TML showrooms are going to be revamped from the May to welcome the two new kids on the block. Lets hope the best for these new offerings and TML in general.